Berlin / Urban Spree / Cold Cave + Pale Male

Pale Male (6/10)
Start 22:05 / End 22:30
When Pale Male got on stage, the dark and sweaty basement where the gig took place was only half full. The trio, composed of a drummer who had a minimal drum set, a singer voice, and a specialist of digitals and special effects, showed since the beginning the direction the evening was going to take: a highly tense mix of Electronic and Noise Rock, flowing into Industrial. Some dark and pulsing lights enhanced the sound’s violence on stage, with the singer screaming, jumping and wriggling as he was possessed by the devil. Some passages were maybe a bit boring, but it was without doubts a nice opening show, proper to enter into the dark mood.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Cold Cave (7/10)
Start 22:55 / End 24:55
Cold Cave is a project born from the mind of Wesley Eisold, former vocalist of some Hardcore bands such as Give Up The Ghost and Some Girls. Cold Cave though has nothing to do with Hardcore, since its music is a interesting and intelligent fusion of Darkwave, Noise and Synthpop. Wesley was accompanied on stage by a woman as back vocalist and keyboard player, and together they created a nocturnal atmosphere, oscillating between ethereal sounds and hypnotic rhythms. A big widescreen on the back of the stage where several images and videos were displayed increased the audience’s involvement and the dark atmosphere, which had a nice and nostalgic 80s flavour. The venue was quite full during the band’s performance and the air was stuck, hot and sweaty, also because the mix of dark people and hipsters, along with some uncategorized attendees, danced on Wesley´s notes, kidnapped by his music. After about an hour set, people left the venue seemingly pleased and satisfied by Cold Cave’s performance, as well as aware, maybe, of having experienced live of today’s few bands which can incarnate that spirit of life’s illness, which was present in many bands of the 80s today extinct.